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General discussion

No safe mode access!

by Mike69poigneur Aug 11, 2005 8:41PM PDT

In the last 10 days, i have been doing everything I can to rid my system of SMITFRAUD-C. Unfortunately, before I realised this trojan had hijacked my system, i followed the error message and re-installed my XP Home operating system. Anyway to cut a long story short, I have downloaded numerous freeware to eradicate this little beast, and even purchased Xoftspy which promised to do it for me. However, when i run "Microsoft Anti-spyware BETA", it still shows 6 SMITFRAUD-C hits which the programme cannot remove, even on reboot. I have sought online advice from various forums, and understood that i need to remove these items from the registry in safe mode. But every time I try to start in safe mode (with or wothout networking or support) my machine says, "sorry for the inconvenience . . . . etc. Do I need to re-install my XP again?

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Mike, Have You Tried?
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 12, 2005 7:05AM PDT

..using ALL of the methods in the link below to reach Safe Mode? (Generally, if you can't reach Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key, once per second at start up, then follow the Symantec article method to click on Start-Run, type "msconfig", then click on the "Boot.ini" tab, then CHECK the "/SAFEBOOT" option, then click on Apply, then OK. After you've finished in Safe Mode, then open "msconfig/Boot.ini tab", then UNCHECK the "/SAFEBOOT" box.

'Safe Mode' Options For Windows XP and 2000

After you get to Safe Mode, be sure to run ALL of your antispyware removal programs. Many "hard to delete" files are able to be removed in Safe Mode.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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safemode advice
by Mike69poigneur Sep 7, 2005 5:35AM PDT

Grif, thanks for your advice about getting my PC into safemode. I have tried changing the BOOT.INI to safemode using RUN>MSCONFIG and changing the default. Unfortunately, this locked my PC in never ending cycle of OS screen display but now I can't even boot in normal mode. i have re-installed XP home in another folder on my C drive and at least i can now get online, but most of my documents, pictures and music saved in my original XP installation is lost to me. I seem to be hitting a brick wall about how to reverse the original BOOT.INI change so that i can get at my first XP installation. Any ides?

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Mike, Why Is The Data Lost?
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Sep 7, 2005 6:32AM PDT

IF you were able to load the operating system again on the C drive with a parallel installation of XP, you should be able to access all files and folders that remain on the drive. The username might be different than the one you're using now but under "C\Documents and Settings" you should be able to see your former profile/username and open the "My Documents" folder there.

A question...When you now boot into Windows XP, right before you see the scrolling blue/green bar with the "Windows Is Now Loading" page, do you see a black screen which give you two options of Windows XP to load??...Both versions will probably say the say the same thing but a dual boot computer will display two separate operating systems from which to choose. You'll only have a couple of seconds to switch from one to the other, but if that particular window shows both XP versions, maybe you can switch to the other and load it correctly.

Windows XP also has a "Recovery Console" which can be installed and used as a command-line tool for recovering files and folders. Here's a link on how to do that:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307654

Still, at this point, it may be better to start from scratch. If you've got your files backed up, I'd recommend, putting the XP CD in the drive, restarting it, then eliminate the current partition, reformat the drive, then reinstall everything again. You should be able to get back to a correctly functioning machine.

Another option is to restart the computer, then immediately start pressing the F8 key, once per second, till you see the selection screen. Use the up/down arrow keys to select the "Last Known Good" option, then press the "Enter" key. It should now go back to when things were working correctly.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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